


it still feels like coming home

by princessafterthought



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, one day i'll post the rest of this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 23:44:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4325421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessafterthought/pseuds/princessafterthought
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian Wayne dies and he isn't alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. death; rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> The description can probably tell you when I started coming up with this idea.

                                                                  

When he dies, there’s a sick sense of irritation.

“Grayson,” he mutters, “you idiot. You should have saved me.”

And then he cries.

He doesn’t mean to, of course, but his white-knuckled fingers can only hold back so much. It’s only three thin tears trickling out of the side of his eye, but it burns his cheeks.

He is weak and dead now, and there is nothing he can do to reverse that. 

If he closes his eyes, Damian Wayne exists only in the last moments of his death: the ghost of a sword still scrapes against his stomach, a phantom pain still echoes in his chest, and the Heretic stabs him _over_ and _over_ and _over_ again.

So he keeps his eyes open.

One hand on the katana strapped to his side, he forces himself to move on.

His feet pad on empty ground and he starts off in a random direction. He doesn’t know where he is or where he is going, but he needs to get a scope of his surroundings.

After all, if this really is death, he’s going to be here for a while.

 

(Tears brim on the corner of his eyes and threaten to leak out if he blinks.

 _Keep your eyes, open, Damian._ Mother would be so ashamed. )


	2. old acquaintance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I know, Damian,” she says, “ Sorry that you’re dead.”

He spots the woman in the shadows too late.

He notices her first, because of the silence. It clings to his skin, hangs in the air.

There has been only the sound of his footsteps for so long that the intruder’s footsteps are painfully audible.

Not that she’s being conspicuous, of course. 

If anything, she is almost imperceptible.

Her feet ghost against the floor, and she follows the shadows gracefully as she trails behind him. If it were not for his concentration, if he had not been trained to expect it, he would have remained decidedly oblivious.

After a dozen steps, Damian decides it is a woman; she is too light-footed to be anything else, and he notes that her technique is too refined to have not been trained.

_But by whom?_

An answer evades him. Her silence is characteristic of the League of Assassins, her unidentified motive following a vendetta or personal tie, and something about the way she clings to shadows reminds him of his own father.

The precision in her step refutes the belief that she doesn’t know he’s there. She’s following him, and he gets shivers down his spine wondering why anything, friend or foe, would follow him now.

His neck is stiff as he walks. He wonders briefly whether it’s better to turn around and fight or make a run for it. For better or worse, it doesn't take long for him to make a choice.

“What do you want?”

After the words fall out of his mouth, he whirls around. His shoes grip the ground beneath his feet and his katanas are half-drawn. He can see the curve of her face in the shadows, and he glares at her from his place in the light.

“Damian,” she says finally, and he stiffens, “know it was you.”

Her voice is odd and halting. Something about it makes him think that he’s heard it before.

When she steps out into the light, he takes it all in. Shoulder length black hair, wide-set brown eyes, olive skin, east asian descent, perhaps, and-- disappointingly-- completely and utterly unfamiliar.

"How do you know who I am?" he grits out, teeth bared.

She grabs a hold of his shoulder and pulls him closer to her, “ _Stop_ , Damian. Don’t want to hurt you.”

Twisting his body, he lands a solid kick on the side of her ribs and she stumbles backwards. Damian gets her once with the katana, a good slice that tears open a portion of her costume and leaves her bleeding.

“How do you know my name? Answer me.”

From her crouched position, the corners of her lips turn down and hurt flashes in her eyes, “You mean- you do not remember?”

“I am Cassandra Cain. Cass,” she states adamantly and then rises on the tips of her feet, expectant.

When he meets her gaze with oblivious silence, she struggles for words. Her hands ball into fists at her sides, “Dami, I’m Cass.”

“Don’t call me that,” his voice comes out harsher than expected, “Tell me how you know me-”

He doesn’t finish his sentence, because he takes a running start and pounces. With his teeth bared and arms raised, Damian thinks for a moment that there is no way she can avoid his attack, but the girl twists sideways and slams him into the ground as soon as he reaches her.

“Calm down,” she says through gritted teeth, binding his arms together behind him.

Her knee digs into a painful corner of his ribs and he struggles futilely underneath her grasp.

“Never,” he gasps, “You don’t know who you’re dealing with. You don’t know what I’ve done. _What I’ve been through_.”

There is a look in her eye that he cannot pinpoint. 

“I know, Damian,” she says, “Sorry that you’re dead.”

A lump gets trapped in his throat and his arm lashes out to hit the girl in her face. She only squeezes tighter and pushes his face into the ground, the dirt chafing the skin on his cheeks. He struggles and gasps for breath, but his chest is too tight now and he can’t even breathe. The pain is nothing compared to what he’s dealt with before, but something in him knows that he can’t take it for much longer.

“Stop,” he cries out when he can’t get free, “Let me go.”

And then he speaks again, softer.

“Please stop. You’re hurting me.”

The death grip loosens into a bear hug and then to nothing, and, when he is left lying face down in the dirt, Damian feels the tears in eyes finally spill over

He’s lost the fight and he’s shamed the House of Al Ghul and the Wayne name. He is weak and dead and confused and the tears just don’t stop anymore. The girl reaches out to him, but he’s stumbling to get away, and he’s trying to run and he just wants to be anywhere but here.

He doesn’t need her pity.

He just wants to understand why his stomach is welling up in pain and he knows her, but doesn’t really know her at all.

“Don’t go,” the girl’s voice is full of urgency and the intensity startles him enough to make his feet stumble, “Let me help you.”

“Need you trust me, Robin,” she makes out finally, her voice cracking, “like before.”

“You knew me before?” the words come out before he can stop them, “when I was Robin?”

He stops in his tracks to listen for an answer and that’s all it takes. She closes the gap in between them in seconds, her feet barely brushing against the ground.

“You always Robin, Damian,” she says, wiping the tears away, “even if don’t remember.”

Her fingers are gentle and warm against his face and as they wipe away the tears, he wonders why he can’t put together the thoughts swimming around in his brain.

Everything is so familiar that he can’t even bring himself to look at her face. The blood on the side of her leg drips slowly to the ground. Slowly, he leans his forehead onto her shoulder and feels the wetness on his cheeks get absorbed into the fabric.

“Cassandra,” he whimpers finally, her name resting strangely on his tongue, “I- I don’t remember you.”

She holds his chin up and smiles at him.

“I remember you,” she says simply and somehow that’s enough.

As they walk toward the horizon, a melody hums in his veins and gets lost in his ears. He closes his eyes and lets the waves of confusion ride over him.

  
(she was _wonderful_ , damian. how could you forget her?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> partially inspired by [this picture](http://damianwaynessketchbook.tumblr.com/post/83774087495)


End file.
